Green Jobs Green Bay

The “Green Age” is a global transformation similar in magnitude to the “Information Age.” Wall Street investment bank, Goldman Sachs, concluded environmental businesses will earn over 1 trillion dollars by 2010. President-elect Obama’s Administration will make energy and the environment a top priority. The opportunity to create a sustainable start-up has never been better. While oil continues to come down below $50 per barrel, we still need alternative energy sources, education and conservation to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and overcome global warming. As the world races to find solutions to many ecological problems, it’s creating vast opportunities for entrepreneurs to make money while helping to protect the planet.As founder of the Green Maui Guide, I invented the first green e-zine for Hawaii. In addition, I taught a class titled “how to start a green business.” In my class, I listed over 100 opportunity areas for green entrepreneurs. In virtually every field. My favorite opportunity areas include: green investment advisors, eco-fashion designers, business energy auditors, green computer gurus, indigenous landscape architects, green builders, eco-tourism guide and sustainability consultants.Why not come up with an invention or service yourself? If you’re already living a green lifestyle the idea is probably right in front of you. You might just come up with the next big idea. Pay attention to the green things in your life and consider if you can make them better. Then check your idea out on the Internet to see what your competition is up to. Maybe somebody is providing a service outside your area that you could set up locally. Or maybe there is a niche market for a product that focuses on the home, autos, pets, gardening or the like. Sell your products or services on craiglist or ebay. It not just new technology entrepreneurs in Solar Valley making bucks. It companies like the Whole Foods natural food chain, Pantagonia clothing and Method, green cleaning products.There are venture capital firms springing up that fund private companies specializing in alternative power, water technologies, organic and natural foods, and environmental technologies. Check out the Green Investment Network to get connected with ecology minded investors. Socialize with other entrepreneurs in a fun environment at Green Drinks. Join or start and eco-investment club. Read the “Going Green” section of Entrepreneur e-zine.Create a job for yourself in the new green collar economy. While companies are laying off people, business is booming at placement agencies like Green Bright Talent.  Starting a green business will not only transform your finances, it will help change the world for the better.Larry Burke is an award winning Professor and publisher of the popular Green Business (greenmauiguide.com). He has an MBA from Harvard University and a BA from Stanford University.Visit for more about sustainable energy and conserve energy

We are at the dawn of a solar revolution in the United States. Every aspect of the solar industry is experiencing explosive growth. Triple digit expansion in solar photovoltaic cell manufacturing, to the need for solar sales associates, to the huge demand for solar system installers is emerging everywhere. Opportunities abound.
Due to this commitment, the Department of Energy will be more than willing to give out grants for something like a home-based, solar energy business. Steven Chu, the new Secretary of Energy has pledged to make the Department of Energy’s services more available to the common person. This means that anymore who want to run a business from home promoting the use of solar energy should be able to work their way through the bureaucracy well.
The change in attitude related to renewable, solar energy just offers way more options to a person, who may have lost their job during this economic downturn, to get a let up and start their own, work from home business.
Most of the grants and funding work is done through the Office of Science Grants and Contracts Division. The Office of Science Contracts would make an assessment on whether or not the work from home solar energy business would be viable enough to be worthy of a government subsidy. The DOE has launched what they call the Solar America Initiative. Many new renewable energy initiatives will establish many new forms of energy all from off grid places by twenty-fifteen.
There are other options and ways to start your own solar energy business besides getting the whole business operation up and running by yourself. You can look for other established or emerging companies that have inexpensive ways to become affiliated with them. To be a sales associate in most organizations doesn’t take a lot of work. You may need to pass a test to show you are qualified and know a little about solar energy but that is usually it.
You do not need to be a college graduate or a seasoned sales executive. More often than not, a person with passion and drive can really make a difference. There are opportunities in the renewable energy industry for those who believe in solar power and wish to promote alternate ways to help the U.S. produce electricity.
If you are required to pay a fee to become involved in a business opportunity, it may mean something is fishy. Good business opportunities, especially targeting the home-based entrepreneur, show not fees or additional costs to join. You should be on the lookout if they do. A company, offering a viable business opportunity, will not charge an upfront fee or ask you to purchase products. The primary objective is about creating a team, a collective of passionate people all doing good by referring U.S. homeowners to exciting aspects of renting a solar energy system for their home.
Obviously the idea of a home based solar energy business that promotes the renting of a solar system versus having to buy one is a super way to offer renewable energy and one great idea that will get us all closer to moving off the grid for good.
A new form of environmental entrepreneur or a green collar worker, was much talked about in the recently election. A green collar job would revive the solar manufacturing base in this country and provide opportunity to people who otherwise might not be able to make a good living or who may have recently lost a job. A small business is the lifeblood of the economy for many communities so when a green collar job is a part of a small business, it is a winning combination.
The exciting aspect of solar energy is the potential for growth. The renewable energy industry is still in its infancy. With less than 2.3 percent total market penetration into the residential market, the renewable energy industry has a huge market to tap into. What’s more, solar power makes up three fifths of a percent of the total renewable share, and yet, solar power has the greatest potential of all renewable types for rapid, exponential growth.
There are also several websites that promote the idea of home based renewable energy. Many of these websites have connections to private equity and venture capital firms who would consider investing in a solar energy company, but the truth is that there is such a calling for something innovative like a home based solar company that large upfront investments are not necessary in many ways.
Home based solar energy companies would fit nicely in the scheme of the President’s Advanced Energy Initiative. Dr. Chu, mentioned a couple of times previously, advocates the partnership of private and public sectors as it relates to the required growth of solar.
As a professor at Stanford, Chu has written on the benefits of renewable energy for home usage and how it will help ease our way off fossil fuels. Chu has called for a revolution in alternative fuels and he says there is no better time than now to confront challenges like global warming. Without a doubt, the next few years will provide a bounty of opportunities to build a work from home, solar energy business.

With the US on the brink of change following Barack Obama’s historic triumph in the presidential election, those in the clean energy space were left considering what this would mean for the US’ burgeoning green economy. In a web video released last week for the Bi-Partisan Governors Global Climate Summit, the President-elect pledged new leadership to address global climate change.

There are as many definitions of  “green” as there are shades of color. Wikipedia defines a green building, also known as a sustainable building as “ a structure that is designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an ecological and resource-efficient manner.”

Many of us look forward to the day when the “utility” company is a wind-powered farm somewhere on a sunny hilltop, rather than a few smoke spewing coal plants in the middle of America. While that day is actually getting closer and closer, the need for a new workforce is also becoming imperative.